I'm Not Paranoid But.....

So for the third time in 2013 my Screaming Bell suffered Apocalyptic Doom. This is when you pick up your dice at the start of the magic phase and for no good reason roll 6...6...6

The result looks something like this:

It is particularly nasty when you determine the radius of the blast and roll 18 on 4D6. It is even worse when you are facing Lizardmen who prior to the explosion had four or five units of Skinks.

This is what the Earth looked liked prior to when a skink or small furry mammal looked into the sky 65 million years ago and said "Oh, shiney.....oh fu..."

At the end of the turn when the dust settled there were less than 20 models left on the table.

Now I want to know why....

2009 - Nil

2010 - Nil

2011 - Nil

2012 - Nil

2013 - Three (in the first 8 months)

Obviously there is a problem in Seerlord Morskitta's happy horde.

Daemons at Panzershreck

Over the weekend I went up to Panzershreck in Palmerston North for a six round 2400 point event that used the Swedish Composition system. I believe that math comp achieves nothing, it just shifts goalposts from one place to another creating a new set of most efficient armies. That said, it was a great opportunity to get away for an event and meet up with the local gaming cohort.

I got up at 5.00am on the morning of the event and drove north picking Sam Whitt up on the way. We bowled into Palmy just after 8.00am ready for the 8.30am start. I posted my list earlier so you can check it out there.

Game 1 - Ryan Lister (Vampire Counts) - Battleline

Ryan has beaten my DoC the last two times we played. This time he was rocking Mannfred and a block of 9  Blood Knights (Flag of the Blood Keep) plus two Vamps one with MR2. I realised early I wasn't going to get the bus so worked over the rest of his army, including Mannfred for a moderate win.

Win 15-5

Game 2 - Peter Williamson (High Elves) - Blood & Glory

Peter had Fortitude 6 to my 4. I also realised that he would be my main opposition in this event so it was always going to be a hard game. In the end I picked up more VPs for killing units but Peter managed to destroy the Lord of Change in one round of shooting combined with a Sunfire Gem IF Fireball and that broke me. A deserved win for Peter who'd go on to win the event.

Loss 6-14

Game 3 - Adam Richards (Dwarfs) - Battleline

I hate Dwarfs. However if I have to play Dwarfs I want to play Adam. He is always looking to make it a fun game and while other Stunties will see him as far too loose, I'm sure he gets a lot of enjoyment out of his play. In this game I gave him a unit to chase after which he caught and destroyed. While that was happening the DoC went wild on the rest of his army picking up a lot of points.

Win 20-0

Game 4 - Neil Williamson (Warriors of Chaos) - Dawn Attack

Neil's army was a 16.5 on a scale that capped at 13. He had Valkyia and then fitted in some Forsaken, a Shaggoth plus a huge bus of Dogs. It was rounded out with a unit of Knights, Skullcrushers and three Marauder Horse. The key in this game was my ability to force Neil in piecemeal while my Death Chicken cleaned up his Knights and chaff. In the end I got the whole army for minimal loss.

Win 20-0

Game 5 - Stuart Robinson (Warriors of Chaos) - Battleline

Not much to say about this game. If it could go right for me, it did. If it could go average to poor for Stuart it did. An example was a shot with Skullcannon through Tzeentch (3rd Eye) Disk Hero. He rolled a 2 for his ward. In the end it was a big win.

Win 20-0

Going into the last round I was 5 Battle Points behind Peter but 21 points ahead of 3rd. So I had no downside but big upside if Peter stumbled.

Game 6 - Hamish Gordon (Empire) - Meeting Engagement

Hamish had what I thought was the strongest list at the event. A few things went wrong for me straight away - no Gateway and my Skullcannon blew up on Turn 1. Key to the game was me rolling snake eyes for the Winds of Magic Turn 2. This removed a single Beast that was diverting a second unit of Demigryphs. This allowed them to clear out a Horror unit and threaten my rear. Going into Turn 5 I was up 12-8 and decided with no downside to go for it. My LoC was on 2 wounds and charged demigryphs. He fluffed his 7 attacks and then failed a series of 5+ AS and 5++. This turned game into a small win for Hamish.

Loss 8-12

Summary

While this was going on Peter crushed his father (who I'm sure rolled over and let him tickle his tummy) so anything I would have achieved was for naught anyway. Peter was clear winner with me second. Mike King snuck into third.

Charlie Lloyd won Best Painted and Sports. He got my Painting Vote while I gave my Sports vote to Hamish.

Great event with excellent opponents. Big thanks to Jeff Kent for running it and for allowing Sam and I to crash at his place.

Next event for me is Call to Arms in just under a fortnight.

Bruised, Beaten But Not Boiled - Skaven at Horned RAT - Part Two

So after a relatively quiet night down at the local pub with most of the participants, I rocked up on Sunday morning to find that I was playing Locky Reid.

Game 4 - Locky Reid (Skaven) - Meeting Engagement

Locky had a combat focused Skaven army which had Stormvermin pushing his Bell and a large unit of Monks pushing a Furnace. This meant that there were no Gutter Runners to contend with. I set up first and given the nature of his list, adopted a defensive position. Locky followed suit, also deploying well back from the centreline. He didn't seize first turn so my army rumbled out to meet him.

The Pretend-Seer Cowering Under Bell Before Slaves Deliver Summary Justice

Going first allowed me the upper hand in that my army got to shoot first. I felt Locky should have been more aggressive in his deployment and also should have immediately put up his Storm Banner. I was able to make in-roads into his Slave units so that they were always smaller than mine. I managed to get a cheeky Plague off when Locky pushed an Engineer with Rocket ahead to my lines and then jumped it back to his, further depleting his Slaves. My Doomwheel got the jump on his and I was able to destroy it with some Str 8 bolts.

From here I was in the ascendancy. My Gutter Runners came on and tried and failed to shoot off the Furnace. Locky then reformed and breath-weaponed one unit. However they survived, slipped past and started to work on WLC and Stormvermin. His HPA cleared out a depleted Slave unit but then took hits from the Ruby Ring and decided chaff hunting was the better course of action - rampaging on one wound. I multi-charged Slaves and then into a now depleted Stormvermin Bell unit. Locky's Assassin killed some Gutter Runners but the unit was destroyed by the combined attention of two Slave units, the HPA and a unit of GRs. In the last turn my Slaves pulled down the wounded Assassin and did four wounds to the Seer (who failed three 4+ saves).

Locky killed 212 points of mine while I killed enough to be 1054 points ahead.

Win 15-5

Game 5 - Wil Hoverd (Ogre Kingdoms) - Battleline

There had been some rumblings in the Seerlord's army about a dying curse from the Pretend-Seer but such things are the subject of fairy stories.....like non-balanced Skaven forces.

Wil and I played two weekends ago and it was a hard-fought battle with the Skaven coming out on top in the end. This game started reasonably well for the rats and I was pretty happy with how deployment left the game looking.

Unfortunately in my first turn the Seerlord slipped from Level 4 to level 1....annoying, but not insurmountable. I managed to reduce a Bull unit to two wounds and did a massive amount of damage to Wil's Big Maneaters. However my HPA broke (on its last wound ) and managed to flee and rally from the two remaining Maneaters.

Then disaster. Not regular disaster but disaster on an A-R-M-A-G-E-D-D-O-N type scale. On Turn Two my Bell tolled and rolled 6-6-6. Now if you have never seen the apocalyptic implosion that is "18" on a Bell roll, well, it's a thing of beauty. The Bell goes and then ever model with 4D6" takes a Str 4 hit. I rolled 18" and took off between 100-120 models. Good times!

So Turn 2 things are looking dire.

From there I spent my time diverting and distracting Wil, picking up points where I could and trying to ensure I didn't have more "disasters". However they kept coming - both WLC and Ratapult blew up.

In the end I thought I did very well to limit the loss to 302 points. With the Seer alive he gave up no points for the Bell and the units I lost, bar one unit of Gutter Runners (162 points) were all less than 150 points.

I'm not going to lie, it was tooth and claw fight for survival.

Loss 9-11


Summary

In the end I finished on 77 points, seven points ahead of Locky with Wil heading a group of three a further point back.

Showing how hard a fight it was - at Runefang I scored 17 points more than here.

It was a great event, well umpired by Ray and strongly contested by the participants. Having such a strong field meant that it impacted the rankings with four jumping into the Top 10.

Next event for me is Panzershreck where Swedish Comp will be used.

Bruised, Beaten But Not Boiled - Skaven at Horned RAT VI - Part 1

This weekend was Horned Rat VI in Khandallah and the event attracted 30 gamers to the party. Unfortunately two got better offers and so on Saturday morning 28 intrepid souls braved Wellington's weather to battle it out.

I took the Rats hoping to get the necessary points to wrestle the Skaven icon off Dave Appleby - he having stole it while my back was turned playing Daemons.

"Sit-Sit man-thing and listen to my tale of woe-glory!" - Seerlord Morskitta

Game 1 - Sam Campbell (Daemons of Chaos) - Dawn Attack

I had played Sam at Runefang and won 15-5. I was pretty sure that he had digested all my nasty tricks and would be working hard to reverse the result. Neither of us suffered too much from the random deployment - I'm guessing because neither of us are morons or were extremely extremely unlucky - though I had my Ratapult by itself in the far corner.

I was surprised Sam put his Drones in frontline especially as he knew I had Howling Warpgale and the Storm Banner. Off rolled the Doomwheel towards them and managed to take them almost out from a mix of shooting and combat before it was destroyed. The remaining wounds were picked off by Gutter Runners. His 5-BoN unit munched through Slaves building Epidemius' tally while the rest of the Skaven army focused on Epi's unit - eventually reducing it to five models before it charged a unit of Clanrats. These held and Epi's unit (and the Daemon himself) where flank charged by the Bell.

On the other flank the GUO took 3 wounds from the tolling of the Bell before walking near a board edge from which Gutter Runners emerged to poison him off.

The last combat of the game - four rounds worth - had my HPA randomly charge the rear of his Plaguebearer block and reduce them to 6 models before the end of T6.

Sam picked up my three Slave units, a unit of Clanrats, the Doomwheel, WLC and Ratapult. The points difference was 770 points in my favour.

Win 14-6

Game 2 - Peter Williamson (High Elves) - Blood & Glory

Peter had Fortitude of 6 against my Fortitude of 5. However 4 of my FP were in the Bell unit while Peter's were spread across the army. The first few turns saw me take out his Reavers with combined charge from Doomwheel and Slaves. The Slaves followed up to right in front of Dragon Princes and then fought them from T2 to T5 before being destroyed. However by then there were only two left and those DPs were cleaned up with Warp Lightning. On my left I got lucky when a unit of 10 Silver Helms reduced themselves to 4 with two Dangerous Terrain tests. They charged home versus Slaves with two Engineers but were killed after killing one Skyre initiate. Peter's Chariot was beaten in combat by a unit of Clanrats then fled off the board. This allowed me to charge the other Reavers that got around to threaten my warmachines.

In the centre the depleted White Lions charged Doomwheel and died over two turns while Frostheart fought slaves forever. Eventually charged by Clanrats who broke it, it fled, escaped, rallied was re-charged and beat the Clanrats who escaped.

To break Peter's fortitude I killed Eagle-bound BSB who had killed Doomwheel and then turned his Level 4 into a Rat.

By the end - with bonus - I was up 1795 points.

Win 19-1

Game 3 - Joel van de Ven-Long (Watchtower)

Joel beat me in B&G at the Masters when he killed my Seer with a Cannon shot so to say I wanted this was an understatement. His army was - IMO - the strongest at the event with wall to wall 1+ Armour Save. He had two units of 4 Demis, Steam Tank, 10 ICK and 5 other knights. He also had a unit of 40 Halberdiers where he put a Warrior Priest, BSB and Level 4.

The key moment in the game happened in Turn 2. The Bell got off a Bound 5 Scorch. Joel picked up dice to dispel and I reminded him that a natural "1" or "2" would see it go through. He then picked up a second dice and rolled "snake eyes".

Now they say sharks smell blood but so do wizened old Seers. The first Scorch was followed up by a second and 40 halberdiers were 7. This was followed by Power Scroll, five dice 13th and Joel's bunker plus characters were 10 twitchy Clanrats. To add insult to injury these rats garrisoned the building to win the scenario. 

The rest of the game was Gutter Runners cleaning up warmachines - 2 cannons and hellblaster for one unit of GRs - and my HPA and slaves killing one unit of Demis. I lost the Doomwheel to cannon shot while both the WLC and Ratapult "mis-functioned". I lost a unit of Clanrats and Slaves to Demis. In the end, with bonus, I was 2129 points ahead.

Win 20-0

Day One Summary

So at the end of Day One I was on 53 points, three points clear of Locky Reid's Skaven and four points above Wil Hoverd's Ogres.

However there had been a number of suspicious "accidents" and it was with some trepidation that I snuggled up in my nest on Saturday night.

Second part tomorrow.

First Encounter With "New" High Elves

Last night I had a game against the new High Elves, piloted by local erstwhile Dwarf Tane. I was using Daemons of Chaos and so was interested to see how they would fare versus the uber-enemy.

Tane's list had a lot of the new toys - sans phoenii - and was close to the following:

Loremaster - scroll, AoC
Arch Mage - Lvl 4, BoH (Shadow)
BSB on steed

2x 10 Archers
30 Spears
5 Reavers
5 Silver Helms

21 White Lions
8 Dragon Princes - BotWD
2x 6 Swordmasters

2x Single Eagle

In the end the Daemons ground out a fairly solid victory but there were a few things that came out of the game.

We discussed later but I felt Tane erred in placing the Dragon Princes on the flank rather than in his centre where they can take full advantage of the Banner. It took them three turns to get in combat and tbh they should have been there a turn earlier.  I managed to chip off models by making them move through Dangerous Terrain. This highlighted a flaw with the HE list - the DPs need to be either bigger or cheaper. The unit size Tane had was neither cheap enough to be throwaway nor big enough to preserve damage output potential. They finally got beaten by CR from flanks, charges and ranks in second combat round after their target held first round in multiple combat. So lesson to HEs - Go Big or Go Small! Don't go medium.

Similarly the White Lions fell into the same chasm. Unit size 21 was not big enough to sustain casualties from magic to maintain sufficient threat capability. I think they need to be around 30 - with BotWD - or in "Stormtrooper" blocks of 10 models with 3 file frontage.

I was able to combat snipe the Archmage but prior to this he confirmed all my thoughts as to how scary the new book is. Personally I would go with a different lore choice - almost certainly High Magic - but understood Tane's choice. Pit of Shades is very good versus Nurgle and having Miasma twice is never bad.

All in all it was an interesting introduction - for us both - and I recommend the hilarity of a longtime Dwarf trying to deal with a 200% increase in the number of phases.

The Little Rat Who Could....and Couldn't!

Over the weekend Runefang VI was run in Wellington and I took a Wall of Crap (tm) Skaven list to the event.

List was basically:

Seer on Bell with Power Scroll
BSB with Storm Banner
2 Lvl 1 Engineers
Naked Engineer

39 Clanrats -FC
29 Clanrats -FC
3x 40 Slaves - Muso and Pawleader
2x 2 Rat Swarms

2x 9 Gutter Runners - slings/poison

HPA - Spikes
Doomwheel
WLC

Going into the event I worked out that the field would have four Lizards and 4 Dwarfs. The Dwarfs are a tough matchup for Skaven to get points from. They were therefore a concern as well as the Empire list (very strong) and the two Vampires. There was also a strong OK list which withdrew on the morning. With the other armies I felt I had the tools and the experience to deal with most situations.

I'm going to say upfront I got lucky and missed all four Dwarfs, the Empire and the Vamps!

The Little Rat in the title was my Level 1 Engineer with Doomrocket and Condenser.

Lizards & Vamps 2 - Daemons 0

Had two games over the weekend and both ended in heavy defeat for my Daemons of Chaos.

Mike (Runefang Lizards) and I played Meeting Engagement and both my GUO and Nurgle Herald arrived late to the party. Perhaps the GUO should have stayed away altogether as he was dead by the top of Turn 3, being Baneheaded by a Banishment. I had a chance to get Mike's Slaan late on and got him down to two wounds but weight of magic was telling in the end.

Against Ryan (Runefang Vamps), we played Watchtower. Ryan passed up putting a unit in but smart use of Van Hels put his big skeleton block in the tower. I then started to whittle it down with Herald-led Plaguebearers (despite the unwelcome attention of some zombies) and stopped it re-growing. The Beasts cleaned out the Varghiests. The key combat though was Vamp Lord on the GUO. I have +2 to WS, Str, A and Init, ASF but was Soulblighted. Through Red Fury and OTS Ryan killed the GUO in one round and although I struck at same time I was unable to wound him back. Ryan pulled the knight bus back but game ended Turn 4 denying me the opportunity to continue the Tower assault.

So two really fun games. I'm still liking the list a lot and feel that with more practise I'll be able to grind out some wins.

Daemon Run

On the weekend I played Mike's Lizards and thought I'd give the Daemons I've been painting a run.

The list I took was:

GUO - Level 4 (Nurgle), Exalted and Lesser Gift

HoN - BSB, 5+ Poison Locus, Lesser Gift

27 Plaguebearers - FC, Banner of Swiftness

25 Plaguebearers - FC, Std of Discipline

4 Beasts

Beast

Beast

5 Flesh Hounds - Ambush

3 Plague Drones - Std, Muso, Poison Fly, Gleaming Pennant

Skullcannon

In the end the game was around 1000 points up to me but at various stages it could have gone either way.I was effective in clearing out Mike's chaff by declaring charges and getting them away from the Slaan's Ld when attempting to rally.

I lost the GUO on Turn 4 - very susceptible to poison shots - but picked up the Slaan Turn 5 when Flesh Hounds and Plaguies took him down. The Skullcannon misfired Turn 1 and died Turn 2.

The main interest we had going into the game was the effects of the Reign of Chaos table. The first two turns I rolled "10" which increased my Ward Save by +1. The effect there was small - saved one PB from dying.In the other four turns, I rolled one "7" - nothing - and three results where Mike's unengaged had to take effect on a "6". Only one "6" was rolled total and the Khorne effect scattered harmlessly.

Mike thought the Plaugies were a devil to shift but they put out little damage. Most of that was coming from the unit of 4 Beasts who got a flank then a front on Saurus Warriors. The Str 5 makes huge difference.

Really liked the Flesh Hounds. A lot of people have written them off but I think they are very very useful.

First Daemon Run

Tom is done from Auckland for Easter and yesterday we took the opportunity to have a game featuring the new Daemons.

His list was Nurgle (GUO, 2x Heralds, 2x Plaguebearers, 2x single Beast, unit of 4 Beasts, Furies, Plague Drones) with the obligatory Plague (Skull) Cannon. I ran my Skaven Clanrat Bell list.

In the end the game was a draw - 18.5 points in Tom's favour - helped by me bringing down the GUO in combat in last round.

So what did we learn?

• Reign of Chaos has minimal impact. Tom took no hits and I lost an Engineer who had ventured out of a unit and had to survive a T test on my Seer
• Lack of a scroll makes magic defence difficult for the Daemons
• Nurgle magic is a nice deck - Curse of the Leper is a fantastic spell. With the Nurgle lore attribute you can't afford to let Plague Wind off - went throw Slaves and reconstituted 7 Plaguebearers
• Found some great gift combos for the GUO - effectively turns him into a Bloodthirster while retaining Level 4 Magic User status.
• Army is remarkably fast. While they Hover rather than Fly the Drones are a significant threat in their control of table space
• Access to cheap banners is good. Tom had Gleaming Pennant, I think Banner of Swiftness might also have a place.
• Skullcannon was blown up Turn One so we didn't get to see its abilities in action

We might try to get another game in before Tom heads north again tomorrow evening

Well Matched Armies

Over the past few weeks Mike King and I have had a series of battles with pretty much the same two armies. I've been using Vampire Counts and Mike has had Lizardmen. This has led to a series of close battles where the outcome is generally down to one of us making a mistake.

Mike's army is as follows:

Ethereal Slaan BSB with Lore of Light & tricks
3x Scar Vets (one on Cold One)
Skink Priest with Heavens

2x 30 Saurus
2x Skink Cohorts
2x Skink Skirmishers

2x Camo Skinks
Terradons

2 Salamanders
1 Salamander

while mine is:

Level 3 Vamp
Level 1 Vamp
Wight King BSB
Level 1 Necromancer

35 Ghouls
40 Zombies
3x 5 Wolves

10 Black Knights
2x 3 Vargheists
2 Fell Bats

Terrorgheist

The games tend to centre on a fight between my bus and one of Mike's Saurus blocks - boosted by oodles of Light spells. At one stage yesterday his block was ASF + 1A, WS10 Init 10 while my bus was -2 to hit (Iceshard and Pha's). Generally I need to hold my scroll for this important battle which means that my fragile units - Vargheists and Terrorgheists  are very vulnerable in the early game from Banishment and Shem's.

We've now fought this battle about five times and I'd say Mike is 3-1 up with one game being a draw - however the games are always tight.

Yesterday's game saw me with 800 points of characters left and Mike with 1300 points left, giving him a minor win. However this would have been less than 100 points had his Saurus block rolled 10 to escape the remnants of my bus (the two Vamps) on Turn 6. The loss was my own fault as I made a silly charge with my Terrorgheist knowing he would flee and then hoping to re-direct (Ld 5 ??!!??!!) instead of the charge I should have made.

And that's what's been good about these games. They have come down to player choices and skill.

Mike, I keen to get my revenge!

Skaven at the Masters - Part Three

Sitting on 42 points out of 80 with two rounds to go I needed to score some points……fast.


Game Five – Tim Joss (Tomb Kings) – Watchtower

Over the weekend Tim had been telling people that he felt that his Tomb Kings had the measure of my rats so I was keen to see how this game would go. I wasn’t uncomfortable with the scenario as I felt that I certainly had the tools to remove the Tomb Guard from the tower if they ever got ensconced. If they didn’t I also felt I knew enough to work over the TKs to get sufficient points to win whether or not I held the tower.

Tim’s list has two key point sinks – 450 points plus character in Tomb Guard and 400 points in Necropolis Knights – and to get a significant win both of them have to be “harvested”. That, along with destroying his warmachines, was my key strategy.

The Early Rat Gets The Bone

Tim won the roll-off for the Tower but chose not to put anything in the building. My deployment was heavily concentrated towards the centre while Tim’s was more spreadout but along his baseline.

I went first and killed one catapult with a WLC shot. I was able to start the whittling away of Tim’s TG unit through magic – warp Lightning and Scorch – and shooting, Ratapult. This was to be my mode of attack for the game. On Tim’s first turn the Storm Banner went up and eventually stayed up for three player turns.

The Doomwheel and the WLC start to work on the Necropolis Knights and eventually these were reduced to a single wound. At this point Tim threw them into some Slaves. The last Knight won the first round but lost the second round.

I stopped Tim’s first “Light of Death” attack from the Casket which was targeted at my warmachines – burning a scroll to do so. In my second turn, the Bell rang Defeaning Peals (24% chance on three dice) which inflicted D3 wounds on any T7 units. It put wounds on the remaining catapult and Necrosphinx but importantly destroyed the Casket.

The HPA went down in one shot to the remaining (and now re-healed) SSC and a unit of Gutter Runners took out two small units of archers before being panicked off the board.

As we moved into the last turns I managed to get the last of the TG as the Prince abandoned them for the safety of the Hierophant’s unit. At the same turn I moved up the Gutter Runners and they occupied the tower. Tim said that he felt this was a mistake but I was worried that Necrosphinx would charge the tower last turn and felt poisoned attacks were a better dissuader.

In the last turn, Tim approached the tower to shoot the Gutter Runners out. I stopped Smiting and knew that as long as I made a Ld test of 8 with re-roll I would get the 600 points for the tower. Tim managed to shoot four but they held and won the scenario.

I felt I had the right tactics for the matchup and a plan that would allow me to get the big win I needed. In the end I lost 412 VPs to get a 1392 VP victory.

Win 17-3 (1804 VPs earned)

Interestingly, this left Tim and I equal in 4th Place on 59 points going into the last round. Tom was on 72 points, Rory on 70 and Peter Williamson on 63. Tom had played the others in the top 5 so was drawn against Antony’s Brets and with Rory playing Peter, Tim and I were drawn against Mike’s Lizards and Raymond’s Beastmen respectively.

Game 6 – Raymond Dick (Beastmen) – Battleline

Raymond had a flying Doombull and I knew that if I could ensure that this fellow never got into contact then I was likely to be okay. I believed I had the magic and firepower to target his Bestigor and big Gor unit and get the win.

My first turn shooting whittled away the Bestigor and when Ray’s Great Bray Shaman miscast killing several more they were very vulnerable. He managed a joint charge on my Doomwheel with Razorgor and Chariot but was one wound short of making me make a Ld 5 (with reroll) break test. In the second turn the Bestigor became rats, panicking the Gor who fled towards the side edge.

Last Picture of Stormvermin Raising The Storm Banner

With a mix of initially the Storm Banner and then Howling Warpgale I was able to ensure that a Doombull “No Fly zone” was in place until Turn 5. He then picked up my Warp Lightning Cannon who had been sniping him all game – one 4+ Ward Save and one single wound – Grrrrr.

The rest of the Skaven army did what it does and picked up the rest of his points, isolating units and picking them off.

In the end I had lost only the WLC for a maximum win.

Win 20-0 (2163 VPs earned)

With that 20 points I finished on 79 points. Tim also managed a max win but over the course of the event I had scored more VPs and so was ahead on tiebreaker. Peter W beat Rory 19-1 to jump ahead and Tom got the necessary points to take out the event.

The Skaven Brains Trust Indulge In the Obligatory Furpile After the Event

Tom was a most deserving winner given his strength of schedule (he played everyone else who finished 2nd to 7th). I was happy to be called out 3rd Place Overall. I thought I had played well over the course of the weekend, been unlucky in places and had luck in others. That’s what you get with Skaven – a rollercoaster of fun!

Late on Monday Night the Storm Banner Holder Arrives Back Home

Skaven at the Masters - Part Two

Game 3 – Mike King (Lizardmen) – Battleline

This was the other matchup I wasn’t looking forward to. I normally like playing Lizards with my Skaven but Mike and I played this particular matchup a couple of weeks ago and it ended in disaster.

Why? Cupped Hands.

The inclusion of the Power Scroll in my list meant that I had lost the Earthing Rod for miscast protection. This meant that I was very vulnerable to losing the Seer to a Dimensional Cascade passed onto me by the Slaan. It then becomes a 50/50 chance that I lose my prime rat. This had happened previously and I was determined to minimise the chance of it happening again.

I knew Mike would look to six dice a spell each turn to generate a miscast so decisive action was needed. Mike also had Becalming which meant my 6s were to be discarded. Mike did not deploy his Slaan in a Saurus block and that proved to be a real mistake. I appreciate he was worried about me targeting the combined unit with magic then shooting but I felt the Slaan needed the protection. I drew out his dice with a Plague then popped the power scroll and my warpstone token. I required 9 on three dice with no sixes and was able to achieve that.

Zappp!

On the same turn my WLC killed the Skink Priest leaving Mike with no magic protection. The rest of the game involved me feeding the Lizards chaff – Slaves and Engineers – while I went after his points. I collected a total of 1793 VPs from Saurus, Salamanders and Skinks as well as the magic users. In an eic struggle a unit of Slaves reduced the Ancient Steg to one wound before succumbing to the Stomp.

In what I can only describe as an extremely petty act of vindictiveness, Mike sent out units to hunt down the newly evolved Slaan and killed him as he ran to the welcoming arms of his new family.

Win 16-4 (1793 VPs earned)


Game 4 – Tom Dunn (Daemons of Chaos) – Meeting Engagement

I fancied my chances in this game but was less impressed with the scenario. The Skaven tend to dominate Daemons and I knew with the Ruin deck and my shooting I had enough to trouble Tom’s particular set up – GUO, two Bloodletter blocks with Flaming Heralds, Tzeentch Herald in Horrors, Furies plus Fiend/Bloodcrusher chaff.

Tom set up first but had a Bloodletter block off the table along with two Crushers. I stole the initative and was able to take out a unit of Furies before he could get them away.

However the key moment came in Tom’s first Magic Phase. He rolled 6 dice for his Winds of Magic then picked them up and irresistibly cast Final Transmutation on my Bell unit.

Seer…….6!

Bell…..6!

BSB…..6!

Ooooooow Look! Shiny!!!!

Oh dear. And how the crowd’s rejoiced in my misfortune. I’m pretty sure that they misunderstood the situation and didn’t realise that it had happened TO me.

Now staring a 20-0 in the face, I mounted a rearguard action against the Daemons. I worked out that I was limited in what points I could get so focussed my efforts on maximising the. Over the course of the game I got all Tom’s chaff, the Horrors and then focussed my warmachine shooting and magic on a single Bloodletter block. I was helped by the fact that I was passing a lot of Leadership 7-8 tests as Tom moved the GUO forward to terrorise me. The Tzeentch Herald exploded Turn 4 giving me the opportunity to work over the Horrors. When I managed to reduce a Bloodletter block below 5 RnF I sniped the Khorne Herald with the WLC allowing my Stormvermin to finish them off.

I almost snagged an unlikely win when the remnants of the Bell unit charged the GUO and Tom rolled low for Thunderstomp. I inflicted 4 wounds but from there normal service was resumed and the Clanrats were eventually broken.

Given the start I thought I played a really good game especially as Tom kept the pressure on me throughout. I resisted throwing my HPA into the fray given the presence of Khorne Heralds and instead he picked up Furies and Fiends where he could. I was proud that I kept the difference to 357 VPs.

Loss 8-12 (1276 VPs earned)

So four rounds gone and I’m 2-2 and on 42/80 Battle Points. I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Final two rounds to follow.

Skaven at the NZ Masters - Part One

Yep, so last weekend was the NZ Masters and thanks to some locals offering to umpire the event, I was able to play.

I used the Skaven Screaming Bell list I had been using most of the year. However I included the Storm Banner and the Power scroll, at the expense of the Earthing Rod and some chaff units. These changes were a success as my Seer only miscast once over the weekend – I was more conservative in my casting dice due to the Power Scroll – the banner blunted incoming warmachine attacks and reducing my drops meant I was generally at +1 to go first.

Looking at the lists lined up against me, I was pretty confident I would do well. I’ve been playing the Skaven for three plus years and know their strengths and weaknesses very well. My list- based around the Screaming Bell list that came out of last year’s ETC – was honed to reflect my playstyle.

The danger with Skaven is generally the vagaries of the dice but you take the bad with the good. Target priority becomes critical to ensure the enemy is neutralised as quickly as possible.

Cupped Hands

On Sunday afternoon Mike King and I gave our Masters’ lists a run-out in a game of Battleline.


By Turn Three all was going well, one unit of Sallies had been neutralised, some ex-Saurus were bearing down on the Slaan, the Ancient Steg was crewless and down to 2 wounds while a unit of Slaves were finishing off the remnants of the other two (fleeing) Saurus blocks which has been battered but bettered the HPA and the Doomwheel.

Sitting atop his Bell, Seerlord Morskitta slipped the drive into cruise control and lay back fof a well-deserved rest. When…..

< < BANG >>

The last thing Morskitta saw before he slipped into the warp was the Slaan making an obscene gesture while he cupped part of his anatomy.

Suddenly the Skaven were fighting for their lives as a now pumped up Lizardmen army turned on their tormenters. A buffed (WS 10/In 10; ASF) Stegadon took down the Bell while the Slaan eventually beat the ex-Saurus who charged him, helped by some rallying skinks.

In the end another unit of skinks saw off Slave block they flanked charged while the Clanrats were able to just hold on by the skin of their teeth.

So what looked like a comfortable 20-0 turned into a 8-12 and could easily have been a 5-15.

And this is why I love Warhammer.

While The Wife's Away, The Mice Will Play

Lynne was away in Christchurch over the weekend so I took the opportunity to get in some games of Warhammer. The last few weeks I’ve managed to get in about a dozen games with the Two Orcs & Goblins and thought I’d have a change. Both the Ogres and the Skaven were crying out for some love so was tossing up which to use.

The Bone Sandwich. Flint-Fang Arrives to Save Seerlord Morskitta (see game versus Ryan Lister, below)

On Saturday Mike King brought around his Beasts and I broke out the Skaven – pretty similar list to what I had been using earlier in the year. I was wanting to try out some Rat Swarms given the new FAQ but was not able to find the spare 50 points (silly Swarms not counting for Core).

The first game (Blood & Glory) was almost settled in the first turn when my Bell, which was echeloned back to avoid being charged by Mike’s Minotaur bus, lurched forward 6”putting it in front of its flanking Slave units. Mike had to make a 2D6 roll of 9 to charge the Bell, with a re-roll due to a magic item. The best he got was 8 and as a result I was able to clog up the bus and go about killing his smaller units. I managed to get enough to break his Fortitude.

We racked up again and this time played Dawn Attack. Both our armies were split to a certain extent between one side of the centre and the other flank. I was lucky that my Bell had two units of Slaves to protect it. However it was faced up against the Minotaur bus, a chariot and the Bestigors. Both of us placed scouts – Mike Harpies and me a unit of Gutter Runners. And really the battle on this flank was decided by a Doomrocket shot that killed 15 Bestigors. The remaining models including two characters were finished off by the Gutter Runners and Warp Lightning. This left the bus to fight its way through two Slave units which it did but not before the Bell moved off to safety. I monstered the other flank and was then able to shoot and magic the bus down.

Sunday saw Ryan Lister, Mathew Collett and James Milner come across. I managed to get two more games in before I had to head to the airport to pick up returning beloved.

The first was against Ryan’s VC and you can read his report on it here. It was a near run thing in that due to me misfiring with my catapult, a unit of Slaves holding up the Black Knight bus lost much faster than it should have thereby putting my bell at risk. I learned an important lesson about picking the right targets and factoring in the effects of a misfire.

My last game was against James’ High Elves, again in Blood & Glory. I was able to ground his flock of Eagles with Warpgale and the Storm Banner which allowed me to dictate the battle. Two well-placed Str 6 Warp Lightning shots shredded the Dragon Princes and when the Hell Pit brought down the General I broke his Fortitude.

So all in all a good weekend’s gaming. It was nice to get the Skaven out again and give them a run. Keen to try the same with Ogres in a couple of weeks.

What The @#$% Was That? - Standing In Front Of A Steamroller

On Saturday I had a great game of Warhammer with Mike King. Recently back from the USA, he was trying his Skitterleap list that was the result of Theoryhammer rather than road trial.


Bloodthirster
Tzeentch Herald (Life)
3x 28 Bloodletters, each with Herald
4 Flamers

So about as subtle as a knee to the groin. From an opposition viewpoint, I imagined it would be like trying to catch an anvil dropped from a plane.

I used the Night Goblins (plus two Orcs) but I replaced the Spider with a Pump Wagon, a Rock Lobber, three single Trolls and a Wolf Chariot. So how did it go?

Early on I realised that the Life Herald had to die…..fast. He was parked in with the Flamers but the concern was that any wounds dealt to the BT would be “Regrown” back. I managed to kill him with a couple of Doom Diver shots which meant he didn’t get to see the end of Turn One. Unfortunately this meant that I couldn’t direct those shoots onto the BT so I took the next best option (IMO) and charged him with a Squig Herd. These, coupled with 3 Fanatics through him, managed to get him down to a single wound before they exploded.

On the one flank I engineered a multiple charge of dual pump wagons and goblin chariot into a Bloodletter block that had stepped on the Mangler. Unfortunately for me this only resulted in four wounds from the impacts…I had worked out that I should have got about 10 kills. These guys were able to regroup and took out my warmachines later in the game. The other flank saw another Boodletter unit walk onto 3 Fanatics taking 17 hits. They ended up taking around 10 wounds leaving them a little depleted. When they later charged through a fanatic to contact my second Squig Herd they had insufficient strength and over two rounds of combat fell to the herd.

However the key combat was in the centre. Here the BT charged my character bunker first killing the champ and then the BSB. He was joined by third Bloodletter block who were challenged out by the BO Warboss. In the ongoing combat the Warboss survived unscathed versus the Herald doing one wound in return. I lost the combat due to damage on the unit from the BT and hat to make a Ld 9 test. I failed and ran taking my army with me.

In retrospect I should have thrown my Level 4 Shaman under the bus (BT) before the BSB with Standard of Discipline. That would have bought me one more turn. It wasn’t helped by two Fanatics doing a total of 2 hits on the BT as they went through him while he was fighting. Neither could get that elusive last wound.

Mike managed to kill all but 100 points of my army while I picked up just over 1100 points of his. Although this doesn’t look close on paper it came down to a few critical rolls and a poor decision by me. His army is a steamroller and I was reasonably happy that the tactics I employed were geared to a win on another day. Certainly was a fun contest.

The Weekend's Gaming

Yesterday Ryan and Joel came over for a couple of games with Tom and myself. Those three were giving their Skitterleap armies a run while I was continuing in my quest for world domination with my Two Orcs & Night Goblin army.

General Advance of the Vamps Towards The Goblin Lines

My first game against Ryan was a close fought affair ending up pretty much a 10-10 draw. There were limited models left on the VC side but they represented a lot of points – Characters plus Terrorghiest. I missed out on Foot of Gork so that took a major tool out of my armoury but was able to whittle down the Black Knight bus with a mix of Fanatics and Squigs. The early part of the game was characterised by wayward Doom Divers that failed to hit anything for first three turns. In the end it was a really hard fought game and draw was fair result.

Sucks To Be Dire Wolves

The second game was against Joel’s Empire. When I checked this list for Skitterleap I thought it was an excellent list so was very interested to play against it. I lost Foot of Gork early as my Level 4 became a Level 2 but it did enough damage to the Demigryphs to take them out of play. These were finished off by Fanatics that were released in front of my line. In the end we finished up with a big battle in the middle where Steam Tank and Knight Bus worked their way through NG block. This allowed Squigs to get in flank and kill BSB. I suspect it was 13-7 or 12-8 to me when we finished.

Joel’s army wasn’t quite as good as I thought it was. I’m not sure the Stank adds much and it would benefit from another unit of Demigryphs or more knight units instead.

The Spider Earns 40 Points Before The Terrorghiest Lurking Behind Clears Its Throat

Both games confirmed to me what I knew at the outset. The Big Spider is an over pointed piece of poo. There are far better way to spend 290 points in the army and I’ll be looking to drop it in future. I’ll replace it with another Pump Wagon, a lobber, Chariots and some wolves, I think.

Hattip: Stole the photos off Ryan's blog

Never Let the Squigs Off the Leash in a Building

James and I had a game on Saturday afternoon - my Two Orcs & Many Goblins versus his Book of Hoeth High Elves. We played "Watchtower" and James was the incumbent.

At the outset I need to say that my 5 Night Goblin units that needed to make Animosity checks never made one check all afternoon. Both of us forgot I had to roll them. My fault [Cheater] - and I am making a big sign to remind me that I need to make them.

The most stunning part of this game was when my Squig Herd destroyed a unit of High Elf archers to take the Tower. In response James charged the Tower with a horde of White Lions that I had cast "Gork Will Fix It" on. When we chose the assault party - I selected the nine remaining NG Herders and a Squig. James killed the Herders and the Squig but it gave me 20 WS4 Str 5 attacks back. I rolled up - 16/20 hits and killed 14 of the White Lions, winning the combat.

However with the Herders now gone the Squigs exploded doing D6 Str 6 hits to all units within 11". This cleaned out a lot of my now loose Fanatics plus a significant number of additional elves!

The Oak Tree of Failure From Small Acorns Grows

Last night James and I had another matchup of his High Elves against the Ogres. james had made substantial changes to his list after Guardcon whereas I had replaced what I regard as a redundant Crown of Command with the Earthing Rod.

I could regale you all with stories of tactical brilliance but in essence the pivotal points in the game all resulted from errors. The errors were on both sides so I hope that James won't mind me going through them.

We were playing Blood & Glory and the first of these errors came at deployment. James put his Eagles on the 15" line when in retrospect there was no need to do this. When I got the first turn I was able to declare two 18" charges on his eagles with a combination of three units. As all of these had an 8" move and average 9" charge die roll, James had to make the tough decision whether to flee or hold. He held - and two of the three rolls gave me 10" on the dice. The unit of 2 Mournfang made short work of one eagle while one Sabretusk held the other up for three rounds before winning. What this did was give me a clear advance for my units with no redirectors in the way.

The key thing is that James didn't need to deploy at the 15" line. If he had deployed at 12" in then I could charge and it wouldn't have inhibited his ability to annoy the shit out of me with his eagles.

The second mistake was my target selection. James had two bolt throwers and these were a key threat to my Mournfang. Instead of shooting one of theses with my Ironblaster first turn, I tried to snipe his Lord. Yes, I killed two reavers (due to a successful LOS) but even then he still had enough in the unit for a future LOS. Turn Two I switched to shooting the Boltthrowers.

The third "facepalm" was again one of mine. I worked out what spells I was going to stop in James' magic phase and then realised that I had incorrectly imagined the effect of one of them. Shield of Saphery provides a 5+ Ward against shooting and in combat. For some reason I thought it was only a shooting ward. I'll put it down to the fact that High Elves always run Shadow, so James using High Magic was a dirty lowdown trick. The real message is "read the card in front of you, don't just assume". The only thing that saved me was the final mistake from James.

In charging his White Lions into my Ironguts he moved the unit outside the 12" bubble for General and BSB. This meant that while he remained Stubborn he lost the re-roll and General's Ld for two rounds of combat and subsequently failed his Fear tests. He rolled up the first time but in round two his Lions were exposed for the girly-men they are. To compound matters in the second round of combat I produced a moment of wargaming genius, hitting with 15 out of 15 attacks from my Ironguts and wounding 15 out of 15 times! Sometimes I'm just on top of my game. Being ordinary James saved the expected average six out of fifteen.

The point of the post - no, it's not to show how jammy the new Ogre dice are - is to demonstrate that the small things in the game can have big consequences. The easiest way to cut these errors out is to play lots of games (and not have a failing memory).

Battle Report - High Elves vs. Ogres

Last evening I had a game with James (Kenny) Milner before he heads up north to Guardcon. Given that there are going to be four OKs armies out of the 24 participants, we thought it worthwhile for him to have a run prior.

James' army is in the spreadsheet of Guardcon armies I posted yesterday but essentially is:

Lord with Null Stone
Level 4 on Heavens

BSB with Banner of World Dragon
Level 2 with Iceshard Blizzard and Comet

18 Archers
13 Archers
10 Archers
10 Archers

5 Ellyrian Reavers
5 Ellyrian Reavers
6 Swordmasters
A Billion White Lions with Banner of Sorcery

Eagle
Eagle

My Ogres were as follows:

Slaughtermaster with Toys on Maw

BSB with some toys
Butcher with Beasts & Hellheart

9 Ironguts with FC/Std of Discipline
9 Bulls with FC

Sabretusk
Sabretusk
Sabretusk
2 Mournfang - Muso
2 Mournfang - Muso
4 Mournfang - Dragonhide Banner

Ironblaster

So James' army is a very slippery eel.....lots of redirectors, a Deathstar with hooks and shooting/magic to force the issue.

Now we decided to play Battleline - because for all my brave words re scenarios - it's the easiest and quickest to get into. You will have to excuse the poorly focused photos but they will give you an idea.

Deployment

Here is the view of the Elven lines

Archers and Eagle on extreme left with Reavers (out of picture). Swordmasters then White Lions - Lord and BSB (separated by more than 6"), big Archers and Level 4 in Building then Archers, Archers + Level 2 and Reavers on right.

And looking from behind the Ogres

On far left is a single Sabretusk.Then Mournfang in a Blood Forest, the Bulls with BSB, Guts with Slaughtermaster and Butcher with Ironblaster behind. The Dragonhide Mournfang with another unit behind (eagle eyed readers will note that these look like two Tomb king chariots - this is correct. It is also because Charlie is a lazy minger who prefers to work and win the ATC than paint my next two mournfang). On the far right out of picture are two sabretusks.